#MotivationMonday – FitBit Flex vs iFit Vue

It seems everyone has some kind of fitness/activity tracker these days. There are so many options out there…how do you know which to choose?

I first bought the FitBit Flex this past May. It’s a very simple tracker that tracks your steps, calories (if you add them in on the app) and your sleep. The sleep function isn’t automatic so you have to put it to sleep at night and wake it up in the morning. UPDATE: As I was typing this post I received a notification with an update in the FitBit Flex software so it will now automatically detect your sleep! Good News! The screen just shows blinking lights to show your steps goals throughout the day. I had mine set to 10,000 steps a day so if I only had one light light up I was at or under 2,000 steps, 2 lights I reached 4,000, and it goes up to 5 lights…then when you reach 10,000 if flashes and vibrates (like a congratulatory vibration). The app allows you to track your water in-take as well which I did use daily. The battery lasts about 5 days and you can wear it in the shower…although I always took mine off to shower. One more feature I really loved about the FitBit Flex was that in the app I could set an alarm so it could vibrate to wake me up in the morning. I normally wake up on my own and don’t use an alarm clock but if I know I have to get up early and don’t want to wake up late I loved using this feature. The vibration is less jarring to wake up to then a loud alarm clock.

In August I won an iFit Vue which I have been using ever since. This fitness tracker I prefer over the FitBit Flex, but it still has features missing that I would love to have, like a Heart Rate tracker. It does automatically detect when you are working out, but I haven’t found that feature useful, at least not during my HIIT/Interval workouts. I love the screen that shows the time, date, steps, miles walked or ran, calorie burn (and intake if you input that) and you can also double tap the first screen to see how much battery percentage is left. The battery usually lasts about 5 days. You can also set it to tell you to “Move” every 30 minutes or every hour which is a nice reminder if you sit at a desk all day. I don’t use the app for iFit as much as I did with the FitBit Flex since this has a screen where I can see pretty much everything I need. This automatically detects sleep which is a feature I love and also has an alarm feature like the FitBit if you want it to vibrate to wake you up in the morning. I did find though, that sometimes this alarm feature didn’t always work or the vibration was too light to wake me up. I recently updated my iFit Vue and then after that I did have an issue where I had to charge it daily and it stopped counting my steps correctly, so I contacted iFit customer service and they are now sending me a replacement. I must say that any time I had a question about my iFit they are always great at helping me solve any issues I would have.

The one issue I see with both of these fitness trackers, is that they don’t accurately track steps when shopping in a grocery store. When you’re hands are on the shopping cart and not moving it doesn’t detect any steps. I found the same thing would happen if I walked on the treadmill, which now that I have a Fitneff Walktop Treadmill Desk I put the fitness tracker in the shoelaces of my sneakers so it will track all my steps that day. When walking while I’m working I normally get between 20,000 and 25,000 steps!! That’s way past my normal 10,000 steps goal. 🙂

Fitneff Walktop Treadmill Desk | Healthy, Fit & Barefoot!

I also wish these had the heart rate feature since every morning I do an HIIT/Interval training workout and I would love to be able to properly track my heart rate during my workouts.

I will continue wearing my iFit Vue though until I find an activity tracker that has all the features I want including the heart rate tracker.

Either way…wearing a fitness tracker does one very useful thing which encourages you to walk more every day. They are quite addicting too…I find myself walking extra or doing jumping jacks next to the bed at night before I go to bed just so I can reach my daily goal.

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Published by Carrie A Groff

I'm a personal trainer who loves yoga, coffee and wine! I love motivating and inspiring others to live as healthy as possible by sharing simple daily habits that they can easily incorporate into their lives.
View all posts by Carrie A Groff

Great review, Carrie! I find that the fitness trackers can be finicky with steps depending on your activity too. Putting it on your shoe while you’re walking is a great idea. I totally need one of those desks- I sit way to much while blogging during the day!

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Affiliate Disclaimer

Blog posts occasionally include affiliate links. They help support my blog costs. I may receive a small percentage ONLY when you purchase a product. There is no additional cost to you, only the benefit of supporting me and this blog, which I truly appreciate!